Opponents of a proposed natural gas pipeline in Virginia are starting a divestment campaign, a tactic that has grown in popularity among climate and anti-pipeline activists in recent years, to persuade banks to end their financing of the Mountain Valley Pipeline.

Landowners and environmentalists opposed to the southwestern Virginia pipeline are calling on customers to move their money out of the top six U.S. banks behind the pipeline, led by Bank of America and Wells Fargo. The “Defund MVP” campaign joins a growing movement of communities, tribes, and, cities across North America — from the Keystone XL pipeline to the Dakota Access Pipeline — that are targeting the financing behind pipeline projects.

“Our analysis shows that Bank of America and Wells Fargo are signed up to funnel the most money into this polluting pipeline,” said Lorne Stockman, a senior research analyst at Oil Change International who co-authored a new report on how the Mountain Valley Pipeline would be financed. “These same banks are embroiled in a backlash over their funding for the Dakota Access Pipeline and major tar sands pipelines. The Mountain Valley Pipeline is another black eye.”

Bold Appalachia and Protect Our Water, Heritage, Rights are spearheading the divestment campaign. The groups contend that residents in southwestern Virginia are concerned that the proposed pipeline would “open up a new spigot” to increase the flow of shale gas produced in Pennsylvania and West Virginia. They fear the pipeline project could harm drinking water, forests, farms, and historic places along the pipeline’s route from northwestern West Virginia to south central Virginia.

Another pipeline that would travel through Virginia, the Atlantic Coast Pipeline, has drawn even greater attention from residents opposed to the project. Like the Mountain Valley Pipeline, the Atlantic Coast Pipeline would transport fracked gas from Pennsylvania and West Virginia to customers in Virginia and North Carolina.

Source: https://thinkprogress.org/pipeline-opponents-launch-divestment-campaign-282b7aea06be